Fitness personality and conservative commentator Jillian Michaels told Newsmax Wednesday that she is fed up with the double standard of the left.
Michaels criticized those who said new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was hired because of her looks.
"Shane Gillis just had his head chopped off in the public square for talking about women who dress in an exceptionally provocative manner at the gym," Michaels said on "Finnerty."
"The left went crazy. 'We can do whatever we want. How dare you?'
"And then they immediately turned around and attacked this woman for her looks," Michaels added.
"It's hypocrisy on every level," she added.
"They went after her because she was a Barbie. Like, I'm so confused," Michaels continued.
"Like it's OK to be sexy and attractive if you're presumably on the left, but if you're sexy and attractive on the right, you're a Nazi."
The U.S. House of Representatives race for TX-23 between Republican nominee, businessman, and 2A advocate Brandon Herrera and Democrat educator Katy Padilla Stout is another national contest exhibiting great interest and debate; despite the fact that the Texas U.S. Senate race is sucking up much of the oxygen — and the money.
On Tuesday, the TX-23 candidates squared off with each other in their first debate. Suffice to say, Herrera was locked, loaded, and accurately hit his targets. Padilla Stout, on the other hand, decided to bring tacos to what should have been a gunfight.
The Democrat ended up stuffed, in more ways than one.
Republican Brandon Herrera and Democrat Katy Padilla Stout went head-to-head Tuesday night in a contentious debate for the Texas 23rd Congressional District, clashing over the Uvalde school shooting, border security, rural health care and whether Herrera's controversial online behavior makes him unfit for public office.
The debate, hosted by Sinclair-owned WOAI-TV and KABB-TV, gave voters an opportunity to compare the two candidates competing for a congressional seat that stretches from western San Antonio across Southwest Texas toward El Paso.
The district has attracted national political attention as Democrats see a potential opportunity to flip a Republican-held seat left vacant following the scandal prompted resignation of former Congressman Tony Gonzales.
The combative tone was established almost immediately.
Herrera's opening statement was strong. As a fifth-generation Texan, he expressed his love for the state. "I love it to death, and I want to see it defended, including its values," he said. Herrera went on to clearly delineate his policy and viewpoints and how they were at odds with Padilla Stout's.
Here's Republican @TheAKGuy's opening remarks, setting himself apart in his debate against Katy Padilla Stout for Texas 23. https://t.co/bW35vuzmRe
Padilla Stout opened with her left-wing talking points, but when confronted by Herrera, they fell apart like a vegetarian burrito. Whoever on her staff thought it would be a good idea to challenge a 2A advocate and gun aficionado on school shootings should be fired, but challenge is exactly what Padilla Stout did. Padilla Stout made the spurious claim that Herrera "didn't do his research," and accused him of mocking the victims of the Uvalde shooting. Herrera countered her with stone-cold facts on how good guys with guns saved lives. Herrera then called out Padilla Stout on her outright aspersions of his character.
Embarrassing moment for Stout. She falsely claims having armed guards at schools don't make a difference. Herrera (@TheAKguy) points out there have been many documented instances where armed individuals have stopped mass shootings. He also calls out her "slander" about him going to an elementary school and shooting child-shaped targets.
Embarrassing moment for Stout. She falsely claims having armed guards at schools don't make a difference. Herrera (@TheAKguy) points out there have been many documented instances where armed individuals have stopped mass shootings. He also calls out her "slander" about him going to an elementary school and shooting child-shaped targets.
Another huge misstep: When your opponent can put up a video in under three minutes, don't throw in his face that he can't name the data center developers who are funding your campaign. Herrera dropped this clip after the debate, further outing Padilla Stout as lacking in intellectual heft.
I can’t name them? Alrighty then. Either she’s lying to the voters on live television, or she’s laughably incompetent. Either is disqualifying. https://t.co/WTJ3jFoMBk
Padilla Stout also spent her time wagging her finger at Herrera over his YouTube mockery, but only managed to bumble into making herself look foolish — not that this was hard to do.
Brandon Herrera caught Katy Stout in a humorous misspeak during their debate "After he made millions of dollars after making jokes online, making fun of n*zis, and making fun of veteran su*cide" "And here I thought making fun of n*zis was a good thing" - Herrera "I apologize, I did misspeak. He chooses to goose step on YouTube for clicks and bait and money so that he can promote that type of ideology. He chooses to shame women, call children s-explicit comments"
Brandon Herrera caught Katy Stout in a humorous misspeak during their debate
"After he made millions of dollars after making jokes online, making fun of n*zis, and making fun of veteran su*cide"
"And here I thought making fun of n*zis was a good thing" - Herrera
"I apologize, I did misspeak. He chooses to goose step on YouTube for clicks and bait and money so that he can promote that type of ideology. He chooses to shame women, call children s-explicit comments"
But here is Padilla Stout's most embarrassing self-own of the night. In the discussion on rural healthcare, Herrera delivered cogent reasons why this is important for the region, what he could do as a Congressman, and how, as a Republican, he could maintain the important spot on the appropriations committee which funds rural healthcare.
What did Padilla Stout talk about? Her father and uncle who were battling chronic disease and cancer. If the focus is supposed to be on what you can do for the people of Texas, making it all about you is not a good look.
Wow. When answering an audience question about rural hospitals and healthcare, Herrera gives detailed answer about helping veterans get to the VA and supporting the infrastructure via appropriations.
Stout just rambles. https://t.co/ZQnkIiLMbz
In August, my RedState colleague Kyle Becker reported on Padilla Stout's FEC records. They showed that over the first quarter of her campaign, she spent about $4,300 on tacos, cookies, and liquor.
• March 30, 2026: $675 — “Cookies for event” / “Personalized cookies for victory tour” (Nini’s Cookies)
• April 21, 2026: $1,089.08 + $200.14 — Total Wine (San Antonio)
• April 27–28, 2026: $2,027.52 + $346.40 — Las Guitarras Cocina Mexicana
So, because Padilla Stout is lacking in either substantive policies or a solid platform, it makes her own substantive physical presence an easy target. To Herrera's credit, he never went there. But others? Well, the Han Solo and Fat Bastard memes create themselves.
Hey @katy4congress we demand the release of Han Solo immediately!!! https://t.co/7rumlxRgj7
On the issue of border security and whether a border wall should be built in the Big Bend region, Herrera brought obvious experience and showed his ability to find solutions and build relationships in order to move policy forward. Padilla Stout, on the other hand, perpetually pointed out what a terrible person Herrera is because he said mean things and made sarcastic YouTube videos.
sooo @katy4congress i at least know one of brandon's stances when it comes to running for office... at no point did you provide any rebuttal or one of yours. everything you did was just attack him. like seriously what are the stances you're running on? literally no one knows.
This longer video (9 minutes) contrasts the difference between the two candidates' knowledge and approach.
In this debate, Herrera was the clear winner. Padilla Stout did herself no favors when she assumed that talking points, finger-pointing, and vibes would get her through a debate, let alone a national campaign. Unlike the Texas U.S. Senate race, the TX-23 House seat may be a walk for the Republicans. The only thing Katy Padilla Stout may be flipping is burgers.
Ensuring that happens is all the more reason to get out and vote. Texas early voting starts on October 19.
We've written before about how two Democrat Senate nominees are testing the waters to see how far their "progressive Christianity" can take them in red states where traditional Christian values on matters of family and faith can be the difference between a winning and losing campaign.
One of them is Kansas Democrat nominee Adam Hamilton, the senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist Church (UMC). Some of Hamilton's unearthed sermons are real doozies, like the one where he suggested congregants needed to be "repentant" for their supposed contributions to climate change as meat-loving Kansans who love to drive. He's also been instrumental in pulling the UMC to the left on LGBTQ issues.
The other one is Texas Democrat nominee James Talarico, who, as RedState has extensively documented, has been making wacky, supposedly "biblically based" assertions about political matters for years as a state representative. "When I take on the politicians who are serving themselves and not the people, I’m doing it on biblical grounds," Talarico recently (and falsely) proclaimed.
Abortion, though, is one issue that Talarico has previously (and wrongly) asserted the Bible is "silent" on. The absurd statement has been resoundingly debunked, which we reported here, but Talarico continues to make the claim, as we saw during a CNN town hall Wednesday night, which was held in the Lone Star State.
Watch this clip, where not only does the purported Presbyterian seminarian repeat the lie, but he also tries to convince an orthodox Catholic Texas voter to find common ground with him on contraception. The absolute nerve of this guy:
Survey says... NOPE. And Ms. Hunt, who is also a distinguished theology professor, busted him over it in what, in a fair and just world, should be the beginning of the end of his campaign:
“I just want to add that the Bible is not silent on abortion. There is the 10 Commandments: ‘Thou shall not kill,’” Hunt shot back.
She added, “And as Catholics, we take great insult, I guess sometimes, when it’s described that way.”
Hunt further noted that Talarico’s call for expanding access to contraception and what he described as “age-appropriate sex education” is a “very trying thing” for Catholics.
Here's the fuller exchange. She dunked all over Talarico with a smile on her face:
That, friends, is how it's done. No-nonsense. Texas-style. Now Texas voters need to do their thing at the ballot box and keep the state red - and Talarico out of Washington, D.C.
President Trump on Wednesday told a roaring crowd of supporters in Arizona that government leakers who hand military attack plans to the press “ought to go to jail and be shot.”
He described the people who engage in such behavior as “sleaze-bags” and “the scum of the earth.”
Trump specifically blamed an unnamed leaker for revealing U.S. bombers' departure and arrival time ahead of the June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites — Operation Midnight Hammer — saying the disclosure appeared in the New York Times and on CNN, forcing a two-day delay.
“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag. They ought to go to jail and be shot. For the rest of their life, they should be in jail,” the president said. “They leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in The New York Times, CNN. They leaked the time that we were leaving, the time that we were arriving.”
“In my opinion, leakers should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers,” he added. “When they leak what time you’re going to attack a country, and the reason you’re attacking is really for defense because you don’t want them to have a weapon that can blow up millions of people in one shot.”
President Trump claims that there was a leak on a raid that was in "The New York Times, CNN" and says, "my opinion, leakers should be shot." https://t.co/qYyEH3wi9i
President Trump, still clearly upset over the leak of information for Operation Midnight Hammer, suggested reporters who run with such ill-gotten information are "almost as bad as a leaker."
“They leak false information. That makes them a leaker,” he said. “Oftentimes, without a source. I think they make up a lot of their sources.”
Operation Midnight Hammer completely shelled Iranian forces at the time, with B-2 stealth bombers taking out key nuclear facilities without facing any return fire. It was a massive tactical hit that severely crippled the country's nuclear program in one swift move.
Media reports then ran with leaked Defense Intelligence Agency assessments of the damage caused by the strikes after the operation.
moments after saying leakers should be shot, Trump points at reporters covering his rally and says "they're almost as bad as a leaker" https://t.co/9ApYYf37gY
The president has long railed against leakers and reporters, whom he has referred to as the "enemy of the people," for running blindly with stories provided by these sources.
He was particularly irate when media outlets began reporting on two airmen who were missing in Iran after being shot down in April. Trump at the time said they were investigating the leak and trying to identify the source.
“We think we’ll be able to find it out,” he said. “Because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’”
Democrats want you to care; they need you to care about the fate of illegal aliens in this country, especially the criminal ones. I can’t bring myself to and never will. Throw them out, in bulk, as quickly as possible.
It’s almost comical, the way you could bet on which side of a criminal case Democrats will come down on when there is an American on one side and a neck-tattooed illegal alien with a rap sheet long enough to wallpaper a 5,000-square-foot house. Democrats will always take the side of the illegal over the American, and have no incentive not to as long as idiotic Americans keep electing people sick enough to jet off to a foreign country to have a “date” with some scumbag abuser or human trafficker. After all, to these Democrats they are only pleasing their masters – the billionaire liberals seeking to get Americans raped and murdered for cheap wages and future post-amnesty votes. When Daddy Sorosbucks says dance, you dance.
Besides, who really cares about the victims of those rapes and murders, not to mention the intimidation, drugs, robberies and all the rest, when you don’t know them? None of them are ever connected to Democrat politicians; they aren’t their kids or their neighbors; they’re just members of a faceless mass that is easily ignored because no one at your fundraisers knows or cares about them either, and your media friends only report on them when they absolutely have to.
They’re gross and deserve all the bad things.
But since normal people have to deal with the bad things thanks to Democrats, we need to rip these creatures out of their comfort zone and send them packing. If that experience is unpleasant and hurtful to their psyche, so what? Actually, all the better.
The Mayor of New York spent the last week whining about an illegal alien criminal who tried to run over ICE agents trying to take him into custody. “There was a child in the car,” Zohran Mamdani cried, completely ignoring the fact that the kid’s father was the only person who knew that and still tried to run officers over anyway. Not only did the officers not know this, but why should they be expected to care more about this loser’s kid than he does?
The kid was fine, and the guy was grazed on the neck by one of the 7 shots fired in his direction – agents need to spend more time on the range, honestly. But the left was outraged.
It makes sense; these are people who love Hamas terrorists who carry kids with them in Gaza as they try to kill as many Jews as possible. The “BabyBjön” is the most popular gift in Gaza after a new beeper and a new Barbie Doll for your 9-year-old wife, as it allows terrorists to move freely throughout a schoolyard without fear of losing their human shield to a game of hide-and-seek.
In other words, these people are gross.
That being said, I find it impossible to care what happens to any of them. The media always finds some sad sack sob story about an illegal alien who ICE grabbed in an action against some violent gang member. It’s a story designed to pull at the heartstrings, but I don’t have any left.
I always wonder why this “wonderful” illegal alien was hanging around with a drug-dealing gang member. Makes me think they aren’t quite the churchgoer they’re portrayed as, that maybe they just haven’t been caught yet. Either way, I don’t care.
If police hadn’t been blocked from alerting ICE that a scumbag was in their custody and they could come pick them up at the courthouse, that sweet, nourishing illegal who’d never been caught doing anything to anyone would still be free, and we don’t want them free – we want them all gone.
Yes, this is what we voted for.
I’d love to see Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-5) tossed out on her rear end, too, and not just because it’s where her head resides, but because she’s an awful person who hates the country that rescued her from the armpit hole she was born in, the one her father helped terrorize, and the one she still yearns for to this day.
“No one is above the law,” I’ve been reliably screeched at by leftists, so I hope the Justice Department pursues her with vigor for everything she could have possibly done. It’s only fair.
Then throw her and every single illegal alien out of this country, build a wall, make it a felony punishable by five years in prison and the loss of any and all chance of ever becoming a citizen or legal resident of this country and the complete revocation of birthright citizenship for their children should they impregnate anyone here, and we’d have the start of something good. Oh, and absolute immunity for any federal agent involved, even tangentially, in immigration enforcement coupled with making it a federal felony for any person – civilian or elected official – to interfere with immigration enforcement and the complete forfeiting of all federal dollars for any locality that refuses to honor ICE detainers.
And I’d move quickly to codify all of this in law by ramming it through Congress in the lame duck session.
That’s just a start.
For the liberals upset by any of this: good, that lets everyone know we’re over the target. And if your friends don’t like it, they’re free to go back to where they belong on their own. And if you’re really bothered by it, you’re free to go with them. Hell, I’d even support paying for your move to wherever on the planet will take you, you’d just have to renounce your citizenship on the way out the door. Sounds like a win-win scenario to me.
Credit:
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, D.C., and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and is the author of the book Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on X at @DerekAHunter.
Oh, it was delicious today. MS has now reaffirmed why they were kicked off campus at the White House. Sure, their access has been restored, but this is why: they just make things up. They reported that FBI Director Kash Patel was in Russia when he was in Lynchburg, Virginia. Who filed this? None other than Ken Dilanian,
who was forced to eat crow when everyone and their mother called him out on it.
"I want to correct reporting from earlier today. I reported that two sources had told us that FBI director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently. We've since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S. ...The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error and we are transparent about when we make errors. Back to you
Some are wondering if the FBI and Kash did this to expose a leaker. Either way, the FBI director had an epic response to the media eating pavement Wednesday
What goes for drug dealers also goes for political addicts and pundits — don’t get high on your own supply. We want to believe what we want to hear. Confirmation bias is a real thing. It’s out there, waiting to suck you in and turn you out. That’s why I try to be rigorously objective. I try to look at the facts. I’m by nature an optimist, or rather, I’m always looking for an edge, a way, a means to counterattack and seize the initiative, and I always assume it’s there. But of course, Patton's flipside is Pollyanna. Sometimes you’re trying to save the Kobayashi Maru whether you’ll like it or not, and you’re never going to be Captain Kirk. But let me tell you, here’s what my gut is telling me — the Democrats have peaked.
Just a couple of weeks ago, it looked pretty dire. A lot of people told us we were about to be swamped by a blue tsunami. Well, in the last couple of weeks, they modified that take. It’s now a red undertow. And I agree that the Democrats will probably do OK. I think they’re very likely to take the House, though not necessarily by very much. But I don’t think they’re taking the Senate. We were being told that we weren’t just going to lose North Carolina, Michigan, and Georgia. No, we were going to lose red stalwarts like Iowa, Alaska, and Ohio. And it was going to be worse. We were going to lose the states we could never lose: Kansas, Nebraska, and even Texas. And not only were they going to win Texas, but they were also going to do it with a creepy communist halfling who babbles about loving trans kids and how God has 68 genders.
The Republican Party was going to get destroyed. MAGA was going to get repudiated. The socialists were on the rise. Fat, pierced, multicolored-haired, gender-confused non-workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your student loan debt.
It all depended on one thing: us. It depended on us not showing up. It depended on us not caring. It depended on us being so mad at Donald Trump over one buck a gallon more expensive gas that we were going to throw away closed borders, tax cuts, a revived military, the end of DEI, deregulation, and all the other great things that Trump II has accomplished. But that hasn’t quite happened. It was probably never going to happen. Sure, there’s some dissatisfaction out there, but normal people realize that life is about choices. You can choose Donald Trump, who has only done about 80 percent of the things we want, and a bunch of communist fellow travelers of the Islamist death cult who want to trans your kids, take your guns, and generally wreck this country once and for all.
The Republicans started spending, highlighting those distinctions, telling people what their choice was, and it worked. Sure, they spent a lot of money doing it. They had to. Even in the best of times, it’s hard to rouse people at midterms. But this time we had an ace in our pocket: the Democrats’ nominees. In Michigan, you have a guy who wants to be the senator from Gaza. In Ohio, you have a 50-year retread who’s never had a job in the private sector; he’s channeling Joe Biden in his oncoming senility. And in Maine, the Democrats decided to replace the dude with a Nazi tattoo with the dude who was doing his cousin.
Yikes. But it’s a good yikes. It’s a good yikes because where they have relatively normal candidates, they’re doing OK. Not necessarily enough to overcome the inherent redness of some of the places they are running, but better than would usually be expected in places with inherent redness where they are running.
Trump’s also doing things to help. He’s out there making campaign appearances all over the place, and that’s rousing the troops. His decision to shoot that traitorous goat molester has reminded us of why we voted for him. And he has made a move to get Russia to release diesel stocks to lower the price, forcing Democrats who argued that it’s an outrage that we have to pay an extra dollar a gallon to support a war against our existential enemy, Iran, but that we should pay an extra buck a gallon to support some foreign country in its war with its neighbor for some reason. Tying them up in those kinds of rhetorical knots, as well as the growing chorus of good economic news, will help.
The polls have tightened, but the real story with the polls is that the pollsters and those who obsess over them are admitting the uncomfortable fact that they can’t get a conservative to answer a poll to save their life. Democrat voters are eager to stand up and shout their love of communism and perversion. Republicans remember the last time somebody got up and talked about what he believed, and how a leftist shot him and a bunch of Democrats smiled. We’re not talking to some stranger on the phone about our politics. The consensus is that the conservative count is wrong; it’s an undercount, and the real question is by how much. There’s no way for them to know what conservatives will do. Conservatives will keep their thoughts to themselves and express themselves at the ballot box.
And express themselves they are — some places are already voting, and the results are interesting. In Virginia, they’re terrible for Republicans — the northern Virginia parasite class is positively turgid at the opportunity to vote against the party of the Bad Orange Man. But so far, in other places, the electorate looks very favorable to Republicans. It’s a lot of older people; the young people you hear about who love socialism aren’t showing up, at least not yet. The only people who count are the ones who actually vote. And it was always inevitable that Republicans, even if they were grumbling, were largely going to come back into the fold. There may be some protest votes, but those will take the form of not voting at all. It’s hard to see an actual Republican — not one of those Never Trump Fredocons — who would vote for one of these kooky, commie Democrats.
Plus, the Democrats have problems with some of their key constituencies. Take blacks. Jasmine Crockett still hasn’t endorsed James Talarico, but in her defense, maybe she can’t find him. Choosing the skinny, little, white guy over a black candidate basically told black Texan Democrats that they don’t matter, which is consistent with the Democrats’ view that blacks don’t matter since blacks always vote for Democrats and can be taken for granted. Same thing in Michigan — there was an MS NOW focus group where black Michiganders were wondering what the hell Abdul El-Sayed was going to do for them. And of course, the answer is nothing — his constituency is Hamas. Oh, and if you’re Jewish, forget it. In the Democrat Party, the moderate position is anti-Jewish. The growing mainstream position is to help the people who want to kill them.
A Democrat Party that has demoralized blacks and threatened Jews is a Democrat Party that’s going to have some electoral challenges. While it’s not particularly likely that many of them will switch over and vote for the Republican, though some may. If there’s a significant protest vote, it’s going to be a protest non-vote. And we Republicans will take them not voting.
This was always going to be a tough election cycle, but the things that usually happen tend to be the things that happen again. Republicans come home. They may be mad, but every one of us out there who voted for Mitt Romney understands what Republicans do. They swallow hard and pull the lever in the end. This is especially true in red states; you rarely lose if you bet on a red state going red.
But reversion to form also makes it likely that our stretch goals in Minnesota and New Hampshire will end up just out of reach. In the end, bluish states are probably going to vote blue, but that doesn’t mean we don’t keep pushing and trying. After all, underdogs sometimes win. Every once in a while, you have an upset. That could happen with us in our red states. We may get an unpleasant surprise or two, or even three. But so might the Democrats.
Still, the vibe has shifted. The tone has changed. That’s not mainlining copium; that’s looking at all the facts objectively. The tsunami has morphed into an undertow and over the next three weeks may morph again into still water, and we may end up with a Senate that hasn’t changed much at all. And, compared to where we were a month ago, we will be glad to take it.
Credit:
Just one month until Kurt’s next action-packed conservative novel, “American Warlord,” is unleashed, and it is out for presale now! Read Kurt’s Kelly Turnbull/People’s Republic series, including the latest "Panama Red," and follow Kurt on X @KurtSchlichter!
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is in serious trouble. A judge signed off on a search warrant for her D.C. home as part of the ongoing investigation into her immigration status, which is looking fugazi: her staff falsified her date of birth, and her father lied about his refugee status — no judge signs these warrants unless the evidence is damning.
The initial liberal talking points came out strong but quickly died when we learned that the judge is a Democrat and was selected by D.C. Democrats. So, if this police action is politically motivated and fascist, it’s a bipartisan one. Also, as Jonathan Turley, a liberal law professor at George Washington Law School, pointed out, this probe into Omar’s immigration status started under Joe Biden:
I also don’t want to hear any lectures right now. The FBI raided the home of Donald Trump, spied on his campaign, tracked the phone calls of his top aides, and the Biden DOJ under Jack Smith kept databases of ordinary GOP voters and MAGA hat purchasers.
Somehow, that’s not politically motivated, but investigating a sitting member of Congress who might have falsified her immigration records is. This is why we all laugh at the media.
The fight over who gets to report from inside the White House just picked up steam. This week a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that stops the administration from enforcing its ban on reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico while the outlets challenge the move in court. That ruling keeps their so‑called “hard passes” active for now — but it is far from the last word.
Judge Kelly’s injunction and what it actually does
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly
found that the plaintiffs likely have strong First Amendment and due‑process claims. In plain terms, the judge said the administration probably punished these outlets for the content of their reporting and did not give proper notice before yanking access. The court put a hold on the ban so the status quo — reporters able to enter the White House complex with hard passes — stays in place while the case proceeds.
“National security” was a weak answer
The administration offered national security as the reason for the revocations. Judge Kelly was not convinced. He wrote that the security claim looks like an afterthought and that the record mainly shows the decisions were tied to the outlets’ coverage. In other words, the White House may have used a legal-sounding label to cover a content-based move — and the court sees that as a constitutional problem.
Practical effects, media theater, and the narrow carveouts
Don’t be fooled: the injunction does not magically put every reporter back on Air Force One or into the Oval Office. The ruling preserves access to the White House grounds, but limited spaces and pool assignments remain a bone of contention. The White House can still argue that some high-security or tight‑capacity situations are different. And the Department of Justice will almost certainly appeal, so this fight will move up the ladder fast.
Why conservatives should care — and what comes next
Conservatives should defend both the President’s right to push back on media bias and the First Amendment that protects a free press. That means we can object to biased coverage while also noting that removing credentials for viewpoint reasons is a legal minefield. Expect more courtroom drama, quick appeals, and headline fury. Keep an eye on the appeals court — and on whether the White House tightens how it handles pool duties instead of using blunt bans as political theater.
President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration in Greenland is “getting ready to begin.” The claim has people talking — some cheering, some scoffing — and for good reason. The announcement leans on a new security pact with Denmark and Greenland, but the reality on the ground is more complicated than a single triumphant post.
What President Trump actually said
On Truth Social the president called Greenland “our new and beautiful Greenland” and said the island’s oil resources are “far greater than that of almost… anywhere in the World.” He tied resource access to security, pointing to a recent trilateral agreement that expands U.S. military presence and contemplates missile‑defense elements like the so‑called “Golden Dome.” That deal does widen U.S. access at Pituffik and proposes new defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig. If you want Arctic security, you have to play on the Arctic field — and the White House is doing just that.
Greenland pushback and real legal limits
Not everyone thinks we should break out the champagne. Greenland’s officials have been quick to push back. Jørgen T. Hammeken‑Holm, a senior ministerial official, told reporters there are U.S. company activities but “we are very far away from ‘massive’ exploration” and many projects could take years. That’s not spin. Greenland stopped issuing new oil and gas licenses in 2021. Even with more U.S. boots and better bases, resource permits and environmental rules remain Greenland’s and Denmark’s to decide. Security access does not automatically flip the switch on commercial drilling.
Why the push still matters
All that said, the claim is not empty bluster. Greenland sits on rare earths, minerals and potential energy that matter to American industry and defense. Melting ice opens shipping lanes and makes Arctic logistics easier over time. A stronger U.S. presence in Greenland denies strategic advantage to rivals and gives America better early warning and missile‑defense posture. Conservatives should welcome a government that treats Arctic strategy like a national security issue instead of a distant curiosity.
Promise vs. process — what to expect next
Don’t expect oil rigs tomorrow. Arctic exploration is expensive, slow and risky. Ports, roads, and approvals are needed. Greenlanders have the final say. That puts the onus on the Trump administration to back its words with real diplomacy, investment, and respect for Greenlandic self‑rule. If the White House can do that, this could be a long‑term win for U.S. security and industry. If it’s only a headline chase, critics will be right to roll their eyes. Either way, the American people should watch closely — and cheer a policy that takes strategic threats and resources seriously while honoring local sovereignty.
